


Plum Velvet: A Triptych

by duh_i_read (duh_i_write)



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Closeted Character, Gen, M/M, Queer Themes, Sad gays, albus should have boned more and manipulated less, albus was hot when he was young, hot cops, i don't have evidence of this just a feeling, so was moody, there is nothing straight about plum velvet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-31
Updated: 2019-12-31
Packaged: 2021-02-27 08:54:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 604
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22044433
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/duh_i_write/pseuds/duh_i_read
Summary: Albus Dumbledore and the power of the unsaid, the omission, the assumption.
Kudos: 2





	Plum Velvet: A Triptych

**Hogwarts, 1938**

"Albus, that suit…"

"I've often been told I look good in this color."

"Yes, but it's so—people are going to talk."

"People already talk about me, Headmaster"

A chest-deep sigh. "Still, your suppose to be incognito when going in the Muggle world."

"There are Muggles that look like this."

"Not ones that are supposed to be teachers."

With a flourish of the young man's wand, his suit changed from a shimmery robin egg shade to plum.

"Is this more appropriate?" He asked with that infernal twinkle.

Dippett sighed, and waved him away, pouring a finger of Icescotch into a glass. He stood at the window that faced the gates, watching Albus stroll down the path, off to London to inform a muggle-born orphan that he's a wizard.

A funny young man, that Albus.

**Paris 1900**

"You work so hard Albus, the caldron will still be there in the morning."

"Thank you sir, but I have a good feeling about this batch."

"Ahh, you're very dedicated, young Albus. A good trait in alchemy, but you must remember you're still a man, and men cannot live on theory and experimentation alone."

"Yes sir."

"Ah ah ah don't inch your way back towards that caldron. Go out, drink wine, visit that Muggle _Exposition Universelle_ and see their contraptions, talk to _une sorcière_."

"If it's all the same to you, I'd rather continue working."

"Fine fine. You'll never meet anyone hunched over ancient tombs and mucking about with dragon's blood, _garçon_. But what do I know eh?"

"I think learning is more important than marriage sir."

"Who said anything about marriage? You cannot meet any _les amoureux_ in an alchemy lab."

Exactly, Albus thought.

**Hogwarts 1995**

Oh, there were others.

The bloke who ran the till at Flourish and Blotts when Albus was an apprentice. The warlock from Newcastle who sat next to him on the Wizengamot during Grindelwald's trial. The driver on the Knight Bus who was killed by Death Eaters in the first war. The owner's son at that tiny candy shop in muggle London he loved.

They knew he was their kind, and reached out with loaded glances and subtle touches, bold notes slipped to him on scraps of parchment.

He turned them all down. Out of loyalty or fear or twisted sense of penance, he didn't let himself dwell. Only one man was ever even close to slipping past the wards around his heart again. 

A brave, good man with a sharp wit and a handsome jaw. Someone who could never be seduced by the whispers of dark arts, who would never desire to subdue the masses or ensnare the world.

Then Tom Riddle made his grand reappearance with a flourish of chaos and death and uncertainty. Albus told him it was too dangerous, that something could happen to either of them and for Morgana's sake, he'd already lost a leg during peacetime. 

"Worried it's going to affect my performance eh? All the parts that matter are still intact."

The look on Albus's face must have given him away because Alastar laughed, a light clear joyous sound that almost made Albus take it all back. Alastar kissed his hand then and never mentioned it again. Though sometimes, when they crossed paths again, Albus would notice the one blue eye fixed in his direction whenever they were in the same room.

In the Headmasters office, with a goblet of spiced wine and brandy in hand nearly empty, Albus admitted to himself that he was glad Crouch had been Kissed, that he would never speak the secrets that were not his to tell.

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this in 2007, basically right after JKR confirmed that Dumbledore was gay. But really, after reading the 7th book, it was pretty clear to me he was queer. PLUM VELVET YA'LL.


End file.
